The girls of Nana, Cowboy, Patpong and Pattaya will be happy to hear today there will soon be a surge in love-struck older Germans visiting their bars and ready to fund the extended family and care for the sick buffaloes as the Ministry Of Commerce announce they are switching gears to focus on senior German travelers after reading the results of some survey at a trade fair in Frankfurt.

The Department of International Trade Promotion Director-General Ms Nantawan Sakuntanaga heard Germany is bursting at the seams with older, wealthy men (and women) who should be persuaded that Thailand is the best place on the planet for them to spend their savings on a summer holiday.

They must have miscalculated, not considering the recent "inflation adjustments". Most German pensioners are on the road to poverty, thanks to Chancellor Angela Merkel. DSalaries rise, rents rise, profits rise, but pensions keep loosing their purchase power. This year they allowed us a meagre 2.1% adjustment, just another loss in real value.

At the time of the exchange rate 53 THB to the Euro some might have seen their future in Thailand "rosier" (from pink etc.) than now, where they get only 2/3 of that, while prices in TH actually rose (from "to rise") - and Merkel makes sure of the pensions remaining at a "nominal level", which means constantly loosing purchase power. German pensioners in Thailand lost more than 1/3 of the purchase power of their pensions over the last ten years.

i was under the impression the wealthy german pensioners are already in thailand

Maybe some were wealthy. Thailand and the exchange rate made them poor. Some went back, others can't even afford going back, are stuck here without the funds left to meet their Thai relatives and the Immigration's expectations.

Some have nothing to go back to. Who could forsee the future, yes it's sad and also embarrassing for them that are stuck here without the funds left to meet their Thai relatives and the Immigration's expectations.

The idyllic beaches of Thailand have long attracted tourists from all around the world. But the dream has turned sour for some foreigners in this popular Southeast Asian destination.

A growing number of foreigners are finding themselves homeless, trapped in a foreign country and unable to go home. Video dated 24 Sep 2013